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I work in the Cleveland media. The rest of the story, that isn’t being reported, is that Scheppers was running his mouth to Cleveland fans Thursday night and got punched for it. That’s why no police report was filed, because he instigated the “assault”.

Not saying it’s right what happened, but in no way was this random, and Scheppers isn’t completely innocent.

I work in the Cleveland media. The rest of the story, that isn’t being reported, is that Scheppers was running his mouth to Cleveland fans Thursday night and got punched for it. That’s why no police report was filed, because he instigated the “assault”.

Not saying it’s right what happened, but in no way was this random, and Scheppers isn’t completely innocent.

Example #823,243 of why it is so stupid to wear non home team related clothing to a stadium.

I work in the Cleveland media. The rest of the story, that isn’t being reported, is that Scheppers was running his mouth to Cleveland fans Thursday night and got punched for it. That’s why no police report was filed, because he instigated the “assault”.

Not saying it’s right what happened, but in no way was this random, and Scheppers isn’t completely innocent.

If only he'd have been packing. He would have totally been justified in shooting them.

My first thought was who the #### is Tanner Scheppers. I'm gonna assume that in that regard I'm not that different from the average Clevelandite. Add in the lack of details from Scheppers, the lack or police report, and the no robbery aspect, and my first instinct was he was probably "washing his truck".

Yes, these attacks are most definitely racial in nature. Very often they are also used as a ritual requirement for initiation into a gang.

The last time I heard of someone getting randomly punched for no reason, it was a bunch of frat-boy-age ######## taking a swing at a student from my university who happened to be outside the same bar as these jerks. Everyone was of the same skin colour, it was just assh0les being assh0les.

Authorities aren't sure what it means but, apparently, there were hoofprints at the scene. To confuse matters further, it appears that the hooved animal was only on its hindquarters during the entirety of the attack.

The last time I heard of someone getting randomly punched for no reason, it was a bunch of frat-boy-age ######## taking a swing at a student from my university who happened to be outside the same bar as these jerks. Everyone was of the same skin colour, it was just assh0les being assh0les.

For what it's worth my initial reaction after RTFA was that there's something to this we're not hearing and Scheppers probably didn't file a police report probably because the incident wasn't quite so random as he's claiming. I was betting on 'got in a fight over a woman' before 'got in a ####-talking contest with some idiot Cleveland fans'.

Yes, the old "gang initiation" story. The ratio of anecdotes to actual occurrences is almost as high as "I swear, my aunt knew a girl whose parents were so dumb they named her Diarrhea, or Vagina, or Femalé, or kids named Orangello and Lemongello, or whatever".

Also when Albert Belle tried to run those kids over, it was because they were driving around with no headlights on, and he flashed his to let them know, and they started shooting at him. Be afraid! Be very afraid! Random violence is everywhere!

Yes, the old "gang initiation" story. The ratio of anecdotes to actual occurrences is almost as high as "I swear, my aunt knew a girl whose parents were so dumb they named her Diarrhea, or Vagina, or Femalé, or kids named Orangello and Lemongello, or whatever".

I'm not going to comment on this Scheppers incident (because for all we know it probably was just a case of him mouthing off and getting himself into trouble), but when I was at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park (2005-2009) the gang initiation assaults on white students were alarmingly common -- not just in the neighborhood, but on the outskirts of campus as well -- and we were warned on a weekly basis about them. We were also basically told by the Dean not to expect the police to file formal reports about them, unless there were major injuries (which there were, a couple of times) precisely because the city had given strict orders to keep a lid on them, fearing 'bad publicity.' Yes, it was nakedly cynical. Yes, our Dean (quite frustrated about it) admitted as much.

But this stuff happened, it happened a fair amount, and it was intentionally kept out of the official statistics. It happened to people I knew. So please, spare me the "oh it's just an urban legend!" stuff. Not in Chicago it wasn't. (And this was in an era where Hyde Park was infinitely safer than it had been in the past, btw.)

For what it's worth my initial reaction after RTFA was that there's something to this we're not hearing and Scheppers probably didn't file a police report probably because the incident wasn't quite so random as he's claiming. I was betting on 'got in a fight over a woman' before 'got in a ####-talking contest with some idiot Cleveland fans'.

Reminds me of a recent incident by a local legislator who claims he was assaulted in downtown Topeka and robbed, but didn't file a police report. The legislator is an ultra-conservative minister who was reportedly found assaulted in a seedy part of town near a strip club that has been busted several times for prostitution.

But this stuff happened, it happened a fair amount, and it was intentionally kept out of the official statistics. It happened to people I knew. So please, spare me the "oh it's just an urban legend!" stuff. Not in Chicago it wasn't. (And this was in an era where Hyde Park was infinitely safer than it had been in the past, btw.)

It's called "Knockout" or "Polar Bear Hunting," and it's happening all over. There have been several incidents in Syracuse this spring and summer; one guy was killed.

"I swear, my aunt knew a girl whose parents were so dumb they named her Diarrhea, or Vagina, or Femalé

A family member worked in Child Services, and ran across more than one actual Femalés. And best of all, a kid whose documented name was Hitler Rodriguez. Give it a couple more weeks, though, and MLB will have one of those.

It's called "Knockout" or "Polar Bear Hunting," and it's happening all over. There have been several incidents in Syracuse this spring and summer; one guy was killed.

It even happened to Slate writer Matthew Yglesias, the lefties' lefty, on Capitol Hill. Being a good little pinko doesn't make one immune from being a possible victim.

The media usually tries to cover up these racist attacks, but when they don't describe the perps it (ironically) pretty much tells you everything you need to know, given that when the perps are white (or "white Hispanic") they always make sure that we know.

The media usually tries to cover up these racist attacks, but when they don't describe the perps it (ironically) pretty much tells you everything you need to know, given that when the perps are white (or "white Hispanic") they always make sure that we know.

Sad but true. The Syracuse paper never identified the race of the suspects, despite race being a central component of the "Polar Bear Hunting" "game." (Syracuse's other media outlets aren't as squeamish about basic facts.)

Scheppers was the instigator in a fight at a Cleveland restaurant/bar at approximately 2:30 a.m.. He was one of three Rangers at Pannini’s, along with reliever Joe Nathan and catcher A.J. Pierzynski. According to an unnamed source in local weekly Cleveland Scene, Scheppers “lost a bar fight. He had 10 chances to walk away before this happened.”

According to a statement from Cleveland Police Public Information Officer Seargent Sammy Morris:

“The preliminary investigation reveals that on Friday, July 26, at approximately 2:30 a.m. Texas Ranger pitcher Tanner Scheppers was involved in a physical altercation at Panini’s Bar located on W. 6th Street. Further investigation reveals that the altercation was called in by Downtown Alliance workers and that Third District officers responded to the scene to investigate. Once on scene officers attempted to get information from Scheppers for a report however, he refused to provide information and refused to make a police report. Further, officers called for EMS and he refused medical attention and EMS was disregarded. The officers then conveyed Scheppers and another male to the Ranger’s team hotel.”

Re: #36, newspapers are hurting just about everywhere, but the management and editorial staff really ran Syracuse's paper into the ground. CNY isn't a bastion of far-left liberalism, but the paper has moved further and further to the left, to the point that it's a local laughingstock. More people seem to call it the "Sub-Standard" than the Post-Standard.

Scheppers was the instigator in a fight at a Cleveland restaurant/bar at approximately 2:30 a.m.. He was one of three Rangers at Pannini’s, along with reliever Joe Nathan and catcher A.J. Pierzynski. According to an unnamed source in local weekly Cleveland Scene, Scheppers “lost a bar fight. He had 10 chances to walk away before this happened.”

There's your real likely villain, right there.

Great move for Scheppers to pretend like this was a random assault, though. That doesn't make him look like a shady jerk, not even in the slightest.

just a guess but I suspect when a pro athlete gets his tuckus handed to him by a 'civilian' he isn't interested in having the cops intervene so that the other guy can crow in the paper on how he took the jock to the woodshed

makes me think of john cleese in a fish called wanda taunting the kevin kline character

Re: #33/35--
Sorry, I got confused by your word "never." The quoted text, printed *SEVEN DAYS* after the attack, appears to be from the Post-Standard's third article covering the murder. I hear they don't even publish every day.

Good thing we got the racist sidebar going before those pesky facts started coming out. Anyone still going with polar bear hunting on this?

Hey, the account posted in 37 didn't mention the assailants' race. Joey and Joey'sPalJoe are holding out hope. Not that they would ever jump to a conclusion that race was involved in a story, like the site's lefties.

Hey, the account posted in 37 didn't mention the assailants' race. Joey and Joey'sPalJoe are holding out hope. Not that they would ever jump to a conclusion that race was involved in a story, like the site's lefties.

Yes, after the first 50 comments in this thread, the non-lefties are now only about 10,000 more comments from catching up to the BBTF lefties' post count re: the "racist" George Zimmerman.

Wait, what? This stuff is online? NOW you tell me. And I was getting the details from the paper editions of the Syracuse Post-Dispatch that I always keep stacked here on my desk. (Along with my old school collection of Syracuse News 9 Betamax tapes, of course.) Boy, is my face re... well, let's not get into what color anybody's face is.

Even so, whether off my desk or from this intriguing "internet," there's a seeming absence of immediate coverage of basic skin facts in any other media outlet. That doesn't help your starting premise about the P.C. liberal deficiencies of the Sub-Standard. But maybe there's a Syracuse PennySaver flyer from the last week of May that included the word "black," thereby validating your longstanding contempt for the Onondaga County lamestream media.

Wait, what? This stuff is online? NOW you tell me. And I was getting the details from the paper editions of the Syracuse Post-Dispatch that I always keep stacked here on my desk. (Along with my old school collection of Syracuse News 9 Betamax tapes, of course.) Boy, is my face re... well, let's not get into what color anybody's face is.

Yawn.

Even so, whether off my desk or from this intriguing "internet," there's a seeming absence of immediate coverage of basic skin facts in any other media outlet.

"In any other media outlet"?

For someone so obsessed with pedantry, you're not very good at it.

It took me roughly 10 seconds to find this story from the Channel 9 website which specifically mentions the race of the suspects.

It's no secret that newspapers tend not to print skin color in descriptions of crimes. My old newspaper in Little Rock started doing so in probably the mid-'90s at the behest of the executive editor, who as I've noted before was a self-styled "Libertarian" who was basically insane. (If you insist that the nation's first triple execution in something like 5 decades goes on page 3B, just like all other executions in your state, simply because such things are "just part of the judicial process," you're insane, whatever your politics are.) Knowing his ideological leanings (such as his deep-seated nostalgia for the good ol' days of segregation [his crazy old daddy had been one of Faubus' advisers during the LR Crisis] & for that matter the antebellum South), if perps had tended to be white he would've had no interest in doing so.

Now that he's retired, probably to go join some militia group in the Ozarks, I have no idea what the policy is there.

Which doesn't mean that the practice of printing general descriptions of alleged assailants while omitting race is of any value whatsoever, of course. I suppose that black is sort of the assumed default, unfortunately, I suppose depending on local demographics.

So, after the news from #37, it's safe to assume that everyone going on about "polar bear hunting" was wrong?

Well I never really thought those theories were correct in the first place. The only reason I got involved in this thread was to make sure that Crispix understood that such things were no mere 'urban legend' concocted by scared, racist white people but a very real threat, at least during the years when I was living in Chicago.

Perhaps it says more about my friends than anything else, but if a friend came up to me and said "some guy beat me up last night for no reason!", I think by far the most reasonable conclusion would be"...yeah, I'm pretty sure there was a reason. Or at the very least some ingredient you're leaving out of the story".

Of course, I'd still commiserate with the guy - "what a jerk!"

Unless it was a very close friend. Then I'd tell him he deserved it, or perhaps reveal that I had paid the stranger to do it.

There's an off-topic politics thread exactly for this kind of thing, guys. Please us it; some of us purposely avoid reading that thread because we'd rather the obscene animosity seemingly present between members of that thread not pervade the rest of our discussion forum. Thanks. :)

So, after the news from #37, it's safe to assume that everyone going on about "polar bear hunting" was wrong?

As it pertains to the Scheppers incident, yes.

Is that in dispute?

Joey B. seemed to think it was, or at least speculate in #2, elaborate that it's real without commenting on this case in #12, and then in #29 bizarrely suggest the lack of racial aspect in an article somehow confirms the racial aspect. But since #37, silence, so that's fine.

I can only assume anyone maintaining at this point that it was "polar bear hunting" is making a JoKe. Maybe something along the lines of "Hey, it was perfectly reasonable to think he was attacked by an atomic bomb. Such attacks have happened, and the victims of atomic bomb attacks usually don't talk about it. So since he wasn't telling us it wasn't an atomic bomb it was perfectly reasonable to think that it was an atomic bomb attack."

I've been in Chicago since 1997, this is the first I've heard of it. I've lived in Hyde Park or Kenwood the entire time I've been here, and been on the UC list serves that report campus crime. What I see a lot of are stories about students walking alone late at night on their iPhones and/or wearing headphones and getting mugged, to the point where the security bulletins include boilerplate that can be condensed to "Don't be a dumbass and walk down the street at 2 AM with headphones on and no awareness of what's around you."

I've heard about gang initiations involving the initiate taking a beating from the rest of the crew, but that's about it. Also, gangs in Chicago don't work quite how you might imagine. The recent This American Life two-parter about Harper High School discusses it at some length.

I was on the northside from 2007-2011, and it came up all the time. They were occassionally called "flash mobs," though. When I was at Northwestern's Chicago campus there was a rash of incidents in that area around Chicago and Lakeshore. A minor kurfuffle was caused when the school sent us an e-mail that said, essesntially, "be on the lookout for groups of black teens." While the advice was sound, the wording rankled a lot of the student population.

I never got the impression they were gang-related, though. The mobs were mixed gender groups of young teens, and the attacks typically happened in the summer, when school is out. I thought it was an issue of too much free-time.

Oh, the flash mobs. Yeah, that was never seen as gang-related I don't think. It was unruly black kids mobbing shops in the Mag Mile/Gold Coast to steal a bunch of stuff, and sometimes mugging people. Now there are scads of cops around the Chicago red line stop, the Oak Street Beach underpass and other places like that to keep an eye on black kids coming from the West Side.

Yeah I'm from Chicago too and this is the first I've heard of "polar bear hunting" being an "epidemic" in Chicago. Acutally I just googled "polar bear hunting Chicago" and one of the sites to report on this epidemic is Stormfront. Not sure I'd take their word as gospel...

and based on Scheppers' false description of the incident, the speculation wasn't unreasonable

God knows that whenever I hear about a man being beaten up, my first assumption is that negroes did it, because of racism. What other conclusion is even possible?

Dumb and dishonest. "Reasonable speculation" does not = "conclusion."

It's quite unusual for 6-foot-4, 200-pound 26-year-old men who are physically fit to be randomly "sucker-punched," as Scheppers described it, without robbery being the motive. (Obviously, we know now that Scheppers wasn't telling the whole truth.)

***

I can only assume anyone maintaining at this point that it was "polar bear hunting" is making a JoKe.

Who in this thread is still "maintaining" any such thing? There have been zero such comments pertaining to Scheppers in almost 24 hours.

The assertion in #2 was not that a flash mob was responsible, and in 65 that "polar bear hunting" is epidemic in CHicago.

Well, I wrote #65, and made myself clearer later. Honestly, this seems pedantic. "Polar Bear Hunting," "Knock-out," and "Flash mobs" all mean the same thing to me: Groups of black teens attacking white people. If there are nuances to those terms that further differentiate them, then I am not aware of them, and concede error.

When I was growing up in Detroit, it was called Polar Bear Hunting. When I lived in Chicago, they were called flash mobs. I thought they were largely interchangeable. If not, mea culpa.

I've lived in Hyde Park or Kenwood the entire time I've been here, and been on the UC list serves that report campus crime. What I see a lot of are stories about students walking alone late at night on their iPhones and/or wearing headphones and getting mugged, to the point where the security bulletins include boilerplate that can be condensed to "Don't be a dumbass and walk down the street at 2 AM with headphones on and no awareness of what's around you."

There was a raft of ambiguous attacks in Hyde Park in 2004-2006. The perpetrators seemed to be almost all students at (overwhelmingly black) Kenwood High, and the victims seemed to be overwhelmingly white. Here's an article from the period, which of course says nothing about race. You could find more if you dig. I had two friends who were randomly beaten, one who was robbed and one who wasn't. We could fight over what the attacks meant, but it was clearly a mixture of class, race, kids being little pieces of ####, and maybe a little homophobia as well.

Geez. I thought flash mobs referred to some sort of spontaneous demonstrations by silly-ass people who wanted to share their lack of lives with the public, with no violence involved.

I'm sheltered, I know.

(I see by Wikipedia that the crime-related definition is less common than the one I'm familiar with -- "a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression.")

It's quite unusual for 6-foot-4, 200-pound 26-year-old men who are physically fit to be randomly "sucker-punched," as Scheppers described it, without robbery being the motive. (Obviously, we know now that Scheppers wasn't telling the whole truth.)

I must be having trouble reading today, because I went through your post several times and couldn't find any sort of evidence or justification for your "reasonable speculation" that the man doing the punching was black. Would you care to point it out for me?

(I see by Wikipedia that the crime-related definition is less common than the one I'm familiar with -- "a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression.")

Yeah, that's why I don't like using it in the criminal sense. When I started hearing the reports in Chicago, my first thought was random dance parties as well.

I must be having trouble reading today, because I went through your post several times and couldn't find any sort of evidence or justification for your "reasonable speculation" that the man doing the punching was black. Would you care to point it out for me?

"a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression.")

If BTF were defined as a public place, would that makes the posters in, say, the OTP threads a flash mob?

"a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression.")

You then understand, of course, that people reading the thread may accordingly decide to engage in "reasonable speculation" as to your motives in injecting race into the discussion, and draw certain conclusions from your silence?

I just want to be sure that we both understand each other perfectly here.

You then understand, of course, that people reading the thread may accordingly decide to engage in "reasonable speculation" as to your motives in injecting race into the discussion, and draw certain conclusions from your silence?

I just want to be sure that we both understand each other perfectly here.

You seem to struggle with "understanding" basic English.

I didn't "inject race" into anything. The discussion about "polar bear hunting" started over 5 hours before I made my first comment, and I never said anything about Scheppers being such a victim. In fact, my first reply in this thread (#26) was in reply to Esoteric's #24, a comment that was specifically not about Scheppers.

It was fairly obvious from the excerpt that Scheppers was not telling the whole truth, and more than obvious that he wasn't sucker-punched by a mob of racist black youths, in which case why would he have kept those details a secret and why would he not have filed a police report? Anyone whose first reaction was to assume that such a thing happened obviously has their own agenda (and likely isn't coming back to this thread to admit his error)...

The discussion about "polar bear hunting" started over 5 hours before I made my first comment, and I never said anything about Scheppers being such a victim. In fact, my first reply in this thread (#26) was in reply to Esoteric's #24, a comment that was specifically not about Scheppers.

All of that is true, and yet you went out of your way in #58 to legitimize the (laughable and odious) racial component of the discussion. If you buy it and put it in the car and take it home with you, then it's yours, whether you were the original owner or not.

It was fairly obvious from the excerpt that Scheppers was not telling the whole truth, and more than obvious that he wasn't sucker-punched by a mob of racist black youths, in which case why would he have kept those details a secret and why would he not have filed a police report?

Walking around at 2 AM w/ headphones is not incredibly stupid unless it's in a dangerous area.

Speaking only for the relatively few places I've lived, it strikes me that the number of areas likely to be considered dangerous at 2 a.m. is markedly higher than the number of areas not likely to be considered dangerous at 2 a.m. Then again, I've never lived anywhere near any sort of hoity-toity neighborhoods, so there's that.

Speaking only for the relatively few places I've lived, it strikes me that the number of areas likely to be considered dangerous at 2 a.m. is markedly higher than the number of areas not likely to be considered dangerous at 2 a.m. Then again, I've never lived anywhere near any sort of hoity-toity neighborhoods, so there's that.

I think almost every small town and rural area in the country is safe to walk around in at 2:00 am, right?

It was fairly obvious from the excerpt that Scheppers was not telling the whole truth, and more than obvious that he wasn't sucker-punched by a mob of racist black youths, in which case why would he have kept those details a secret and why would he not have filed a police report?

Scheppers would hardly have been the first guy in history to not file a police report after a street crime.

***

All of that is true, and yet you went out of your way in #58 to legitimize the (laughable and odious) racial component of the discussion. If you buy it and put it in the car and take it home with you, then it's yours, whether you were the original owner or not.

Yes, I really "went out of [my] way" by posting the last 13 words in #58, in a thread in which I was already participating.

I think almost every small town and rural area in the country is safe to walk around in at 2:00 am, right?

I can't imagine that it would be safe to walk around at 2 a.m. wearing headphones in any place that one might reasonably walk around at that time. I mean, West Podunk, Iowa would be safe w/ headphones at 2, but there's not much likelihood of anyone actually trying it out. Where are you going to walk to?

There are lots of places that are more or less safe at 2 a.m. for the unheadphoned.

I think almost every small town and rural area in the country is safe to walk around in at 2:00 am, right?

Probably. I grew up in a place like that, but I should've specified "relatively few places of any size" (i.e. Little Rock or Montgomery) in the post to which you responded.

You can probably walk with a certain amount of impunity down my street at 2 a.m, with or without headphones, but after the great lawnmower theft of a couple of weeks ago, I might sic the feral cats on you.